My husband and I like to have a drink in our cabin while getting ready for dinner. We understand the Cruise Line (HAL) wants to make money off of us in their bars, and we do that after dinner.
1. what is the deal on taking my own liquor on board
2. what's the best way?

you can choose to break the cruiselines rules and "smuggle" your liquor aboard in your checked baggage. You run the risk of it breaking during handeling and you also run the risk of confiscation if security decides to scan your bags and finds the booze.
You can pre-purchase a gift of liquor to be sent to your stateroom, or once you are aboard you may be able to purchase a bottle of liquor from room service

If you take your own liquor on board, in your carry on, it will probably be confiscated. If you pack it in your checked baggage it will probably make it to your cabin with no problem.

The greatest disadvantage to packing liquor in your luggage is the added weight and the chance of breakage. I would opt to pre-order your liquor through the cruise line and have it in your cabin when you arrive or shortly thereafter. You can do this by calling the "Bon Voyage Gifts" line. Room service is an option but, other than Holland America, it is either not available, by the bottle or extremely expensive.

All lines are becoming more strict on bringing liquor on board and NCL is the worst for checking bags for smuggled booze. It is the ONLY cruise line I know of that actually checks and holds liquor that is found in "checked" baggage. The upside is that they have an available in-cabin bar set up.

Go the easy way: Pre-order it.

Take care,
Mike

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Buy plastic bottles. bubble wrap it, duct tape the seal on the bottle and put them in large plastic sealable bags. Put them in the luggage you give to porters, definetely not carry on and you'll have no problem. They are not going to x-ray 6000+ suitcases of luggage in a 3 hour period. Enjoy.

I'm getting so many conflicting stories about "smuggling" booze on board. I heard that there are times that even after shave was found in checked luggage and the guy who packed it had to go to the checking area and open his luggage and show them it was only after shave. I didn't think that the cruise lines would check and xray all of the luggage that comes on board. We are taking a Carnival ship and I would like to know if anyone has recentely taken booze in plastic bottles in checked luggage successfuly? How much did you take?

I have witnessed liquor being confiscated, & personally, I could not be bothered with all the James Bond smuggling, or the chance of broken bottles, in my luggage. A set up from the ship seems the way to go. Enjoy your vacation, without worrying about this.

I agree with the person who told you to buy plastic liquor bottles and bubble wrap them and put them in your suitcase. Put them in a garbage for extra care. My husband does this and then just adds juice that you can usually get off the drink carts on deck. You don't want something that has to be mixed with soda because that is expensive too. Good luck!

I'm getting so many conflicting stories about "smuggling" booze on board. I heard that there are times that even after shave was found in checked luggage and the guy who packed it had to go to the checking area and open his luggage and show them it was only after shave. I didn't think that the cruise lines would check and xray all of the luggage that comes on board. We are taking a Carnival ship and I would like to know if anyone has recentely taken booze in plastic bottles in checked luggage successfuly? How much did you take?

Thank you
Darlene

Just like on an aircraft, each and every piece of luggage that goes onboard a cruiseship goes thru that X-ray machine, it's called security!

Captain:
I don't doubt that the security is the same as on a plane. I would hope it would be for reasons of bombs and weapons.
I am still reading that so many others have taken bottles of "their favorite bar drink", [booze], with them in their checked luggage.
I was just asking the masses of wonderful people here on this site their opinions.
Thank you so much for the information

If you plan on smuggling booze on Carnival, you'll be OK. They tend to be the most leniant of all the cruiselines. If you feel uncomfortable with smuggling, than you may want to consider contacting Carnival's Bon Voyage dept, as Trip said, they can set you up with booze to drink in your cabin and you will be all very legit.

I go on cruise with Carnival every January since 2004. We always pack a bottle of wine each in luggage. Never had a problem, except the time we forgot corkscrew, but our cabin steward took care of us. Tipped him and he was very happy.